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MP youth held for making ‘threat call’ to AI; says did it for fun

A 20-year-old youth from Madhya Pradesh has been arrested in connection a threat call made to national carrier Air India’s Thane call centre last week, threatening to hijack an AI flight on November 28, and claimed that he did it “just out of fun”.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone-V, Vilas Chandanshive told a press conference at the Shrinagar Police station here today that the youth was nabbed from Harda district of Madhya Pradesh, yesterday, and an offence has been registered against him.

He was produced before a local court which remanded him to police custody till December 2.

According to preliminary investigations, the youth, who is a class XII student, had made the call “just out of fun”, though state ATS and Intelligence Bureau were also roped in to look into the matter taking into consideration the gravity of the call.

The youth’s identity has been withheld by the police.

According to the FIR filed by Air India with the Shrinagar Police station here, on November 20, at about 22:25 hours, an unidentified person called on the toll-free number of the AI call centre, threatening to hijack an Air India flight on November 28.

The DCP said the caller spoke fluent Hindi and identified himself as an ‘ISIS member’. He said they have planned to hijack a flight on November 28 and that the call should be taken as a “hoax”.

Police soon traced the call location, which was MP, and a team of personnel of Shrinagar police was sent to the state to trace the caller, he said.

The team located the caller at Rahatgaon village in Harda and the boy was taken into custody, Chandanshive said, adding, during the interrogation, he confessed to have made the call.

“The youth had three SIM cards with him. The SIM card through which he made the call, the youth said, he found it abandoned and started using it,” the DCP said.

Maharashtra Police was also assisted by the local Rahatgaon police station of MP, he said.

A case has been registered under IPC section 505 (1)(B) (intent to cause, or which is likely to cause, fear or alarm to the public) and 502 (2) (criminal intimidation) in this regard.